1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a control apparatus for and to a control method of controlling a variable valve mechanism in a hybrid vehicle, and in particular, relates to a control apparatus for and to a control method of controlling the aforementioned variable valve mechanism in a hybrid vehicle which includes an engine having a variable valve mechanism that allows at least a closing timing of an intake valve to be changed, and includes an electric motor directly connected to a crankshaft of this engine.
2. Description of Related Art
Japanese Laid-Open (Kokai) Patent Application Publication No. 2008-196316 discloses suppressing rev-up of an engine by controlling an intake valve closing timing to a timing near the bottom dead center when the engine is started.
For a hybrid vehicle having an engine and an electric motor that is directly connected to a crankshaft of the engine, in order to ensure a stable and good engine startability when restarting an automatically stopped engine, it is preferable that an intake valve closing timing be set to a timing near 80 degrees after the bottom dead center.
However, the engine revs up at an intake valve closing timing which is suitable for engine start. At this time, however, if an attempt is made to suppress the rev-up of the engine by shifting the intake valve closing timing close to the bottom dead center, a problem arises in that it is difficult to suppress the rev-up with good response because a change amount of the intake valve closing timing is large.